Col. Sanders Gives Hope to Baseball Fans

Recovery of statue from river may lift 'curse' on Japanese team
By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 11, 2009 2:14 PM CDT
Col. Sanders Gives Hope to Baseball Fans
Colonel Sanders in 1948.   (AP Photo)

A statue of KFC founder Colonel Sanders tossed into a river in Osaka, Japan, over 2 decades ago has been recovered, possibly ending the "curse" that's widely believed to be shadowing the Hanshin Tigers baseball team, the Mainichi Daily News reports. Jubilant fans tore the mascot from its moorings after a big win in 1985, and the Tigers haven’t won a Japan Series since.

A team of divers searching for unexploded ordnance found the statue's torso, setting off an expedition that recovered the lower section and a hand. The colonel's glasses and other hand are still missing. The city and KFC are conferring about what to do with the recovered mascot. (More Kentucky Fried Chicken stories.)

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